Observer announces relaunch date

The Observer is to switch to the new Berliner format as part of a major relaunch on January 8, it was announced today.

The new-look Observer will include a full-colour news section and a new, separate listings section to sit alongside the Observer magazine.

"Sundays have changed dramatically over recent years and the Berliner Observer will be the most modern, punchy, engaging Sunday paper, with more variety for the reader, more interactivity with our audience, fantastic use of pictures, a brilliant stable of writers, and the best array of magazines in the market," said the editor, Roger Alton.

The paper has also signed up writer and comedian Armando Iannucci as a weekly columnist and will next month launch a new magazine, Observer Woman, to sit alongside its existing food, music and sport magazines.

Sales of the Observer fell 3% month-on-month to 436,882 in November, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations, while the recently relaunched Sunday Telegraph was up 8% at 714,992.

The switch to the new Berliner format follows the Guardian's successful relaunch in September, which has pushed sales up over the 400,000 mark from around 340,000 in August.